Under Putin, the former KGB now runs Russia and has returned to actively harassing and intimidating journalists and dissidents.

By contrast the US style of massive surveillance is done quietly, so people don't realize how much they are being tracked. Digital technology means that both the US and Russia have a higher level of general surveillance today than was found in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union could not tell where everyone went all the time; its agents could follow only a limited set of people.

Although the NSA and FBI don't entirely run the US, the level of oversight by Congress and courts is very weak.